 Orange chicken | |
| Course | Main |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | China (original version) United States (Chinese-American version) |
| Region or state | Hunan (original version) Various claims (Chinese-American version) |
| Main ingredients | Chicken, orange sauce or orange peels |
Orange chicken is anAmerican Chinese dish of fried chicken in a sweet orange-flavouredchili sauce glaze.
The variety of orange chicken most commonly found atNorth AmericanChinese restaurants consists of chopped, battered and friedchicken pieces coated in a sweet orange-flavored chili sauce, which thickens or caramelizes to a glaze. Chef Andy Kao claims to have developed the original Chinese-American orange chicken recipe around the time aPanda Express opened atAla Moana Center in Hawaiʻi in 1987, the first location outside of California.[1][2][3][4] Since Panda Express is closely associated with this dish, Panda Express uses orange chicken as a promotion tool by having a dedicated food truck tour the country distributing samples of orange chicken.[5]
Orange chicken is called Chinese food in North America, but orange chicken is rarely found in Chinese restaurants in China.Andrew Cherng, owner and founder of Panda Express, said that orange chicken is just a variation ofGeneral Tso's chicken, another dish that is almost unknown in China. JournalistJennifer 8. Lee says that both "General Tso's chicken and Orange Chicken are Americanized mutations of sweet and sour dishes found in China."[1] Orange chicken has also entered the menus of the mainstream U.S. by being served in school cafeterias,[6] and in military bases' chow halls,[7] and also found in the supermarket frozen meal aisle.[8][9]
Jimmy Wang, executive director of culinary innovation at Panda Express, claims orange chicken is one of the most creative dishes in the past thirty years.[10] In most countries in theWestern Hemisphere, the names "orange chicken", "orange peel chicken", "orange-flavored chicken", and "tangerine chicken" are typically used for this particular dish.
This dish may have originally come from the "tangerine chicken" dish from Hunan, China. In Chinese, this dish is known as "陳皮雞", literally "dried citrus peel chicken", referring todried orange or tangerine peel. However, the taste and recipes of this dish differ due to cultural and geographical factors. The American Chinese dish is claimed to be inspired by mochiko chicken and similardishes from Hawaiʻi, being initially similar to achicken wing before being modified.[3] In adapting the dish, the use of tangerine was changed to the use of fresh orange peel or no orange at all. Tangerine is used intraditional Chinese medicine as well as cooking. Tangerine chicken tastes fresh and spicy, but orange chicken tastes sweet and sour. Orange chicken is crispy cooked in a sweet and mildly spicy orange sauce.[11] The sweetness of orange chicken was introduced to cater to American tastes.[12]
This dish may be known as the following in Sinitic languages:
Orange chicken is the signature dish of the American fast food chain Panda Express, which sells over 100 million pounds of it every year.[14]
Similar Chinese chicken dishes:
Media related toOrange chicken at Wikimedia Commons
